The Assassin
by Sunshine Muncher
Summary: Zer0, an assassin shrouded in mystery, has more motives to coming to Pandora than any of the vault hunters would have guessed.
1. Welcome T0 Pand0ra

**I had a new book idea! hooray! I got really excited when I had this idea, so I might be putting a few more books a side for a while.**

A mixture of five completely different people stood or sat around the bumpy  
train car that jerked and made dangerous creaking noises despite the fact that  
it was a highspeed train that didn't use an old fashioned track. Zer0 silently  
stood in a corner, away from everyone else, observing the people around him with  
mild curiosity.

There was a man who was obviously a soldier and obviously was arrogant and immature by the way he stood and even talked. Every expression on his face and hand gesture made Zer0 dislike him immediately, but he knew better than to immediately judge a person you haven't even talked to.

There was a huge muscular man, or creature, that just sat there every once in a while twitching his head and his one eye not covered by the mask showed constant torment and anger. He held a huge buzz saw that made even Zer0 nervous.

The third in the group was a short muscular man with blue hair. He was loud and obnoxious when he talked, he called himself a gunzerker, if that was even a word, and it irritated Zer0, but this led the assassin to believe that this man suffered from self esteem issues and anger issues.

One girl in her teens, who looked young, way too young to be on Pandora sat silently tinkering with her arm. Zer0 had been wondering why it appeared she was shoving a screw driver in her arm until it shifted for him to see a wicked looking metal arm.

Then the last one, Zer0's target, a siren. The only name he knew here. He was hired to capture her and bring her to his contractor. If capture was impossible, he would kill her. The assassin normally didn't take contracts like that, but this was a siren. Who could turn down an opportunity and money to find a siren?

The woman Maya, was interesting. She was different than other sirens in legends and stories. The sirens usually used their beauty to take advantage of opponents,especially men to better manipulate or kill them. Maya on the other hand was quiet. Her clothes were more practical looking for this planet, and what stuckout the most was her lack of social skills. It was so obvious that even the soldier could see it.

Zer0 was thinking about the how he would have to change his plans since there were other people around, and he didn't feel like it would be good to be fighting anyone enclosed on this train if the instruction was given. No, he would have to wait.

Suddenly something felt wrong, there was a change in the air, everyone else noticed to. Zer0 followed their gazes as the cheesy welcome sign fell away to reveal a new one.

Then as if they all knew each other, they sprang into a single minded action as Hyperion robots poured into the train car from the ceiling and other doors.

Zer0 had his own idea, he couldn't let the siren die or be hurt, though it would be  
an ideal opportunity to capture her. He jumped up through the hole in the  
ceiling and faced two engineers. He smirked beneath his helmet and easily  
dispatched them before they knew what was going on. he wiped the blade of his  
katana of blood and leaped back into the hole.

Inside the train car was carnage. The soldier had gathered everyone together and was waiting for Zer0 to return. "Hey ninja boy." The soldier began, all of his snarky additude was gone and replaced with seriousness.

"Name's Axton, just incase we don't make it." Zer0 nodded and displayed a "0" over his helmet. "Your name's Zer0 I'm guessing?"

The assassin nodded and noticed that the youngest member in  
the group had a look of awe on her face. She looked like she was going to say  
something but then Axton silenced her with a look. "Okay everyone, let's  
go!"

Zer0 complied, now was not a good time to be trying to steal Maya  
away, though she was right in front of him now.

Axton kicked in the door to another car and froze at the horrifying sight of the room filled with dynamite, and a dummy of the man that had technically hired most of these people in the train as vault hunters. Zer0 and everyone else didn't even stop to listen because they were all running down the car trying to get far away.

The explosion knocked him off his feet. Fire from the blast was everywhere, people  
loaders, and metal pieces. Zer0 was flying in the air realizing that he'd just  
failed his mission. He was going to die here on this desolate planet Pandora.  
Then with a loud thunk, something collided with his head and everything went  
black.


	2. Welcome t0 The Family

**Okay so I've got the next chapter up, sorry for the delay, Fan Fiction was being irritating. I'm know that I didn't really mention where the romance part comes into this story, but I wanted to leave it a bit of a surprise. This chapter I've hinted at what it'll be.**

**So enjoy!**

**Oh and I'm glad that some of you liked it right away! I was a little surprised, so thanks!**

Zer0 slowly came back into consciousness. Everything hurt, his arm felt wrong,and he was numb with cold. He opened his eyes seeing a dark sky with snowblowing overhead. Zer0 brought his uninjured hand up to the side of his head feeling a dent in the side of his helmet. That would explain the splitting headache. Also he realized right away, his cloaking technology was busted up too.

That was wonderful.

Zer0 flopped his arm back down, a groan leaving his lips. Then he heard a voice nearby calling his name, a woman's voice. He wanted to call back but the cold snow was sapping his strength, plus the head ache, and his arm.

He just hopped that the person would find him soon. Then her face came into view through the snow. Blood was running down the tattoos on her arm and two large pieces of metal were embedded into her arm. Zer0 tried to push himself up, but he failed and collapsed back down feeling like his ribs were on fire.

Great. He was supposed to capture or kill the very person tryingto help him, and he had something wrong with his arm, and ribs. How was this supposed to work now?

"Zer0, there you are, we were all looking for you, are you okay?"

Obviously not, but the Siren's face laced so innocently with concern kept him from saying anything too mean out of anger. He just said sarcastically, "do I look okay?" That was the first word he'd uttered sincegetting on that train. Maya stared at him, annoyance darkening her eyes, then she turned and shouted, "guys, over here! I found Zer0!"

So apparently Zer0 was bad at socializing too because his attempt to be nice just failed.

Zer0 tried to push himself up again but Maya stopped him saying, "hold on, you shouldn't get up. You have a broken arm, and you're bleeding heavily by your ribs. Zer0 looked down at himself and saw the blood dripping down from a gash across his ribs. He felt a wave of dizziness from blood loss.

Soon the other vault hunters came into view. Axton was leading them carrying the young girl who looked like she just gained consciousness. Salvador was walking along blood and gashes covering his body, but that didn't even look like it affected him. The pshyco was similarily if not worse hurt and unaffected.

Zer0 tried to stand up but searing pain made his arm buckle. It wasn't as if these injuries were uncomon, but he hasn't been caught in an explosion in a long time. The last time it happened, it was much worse. Everything was a little fuzzy there too.

The psycho noticed and lumbered over and with out warning shouted, "STICK MAN NEEDS HELP. I WILL HELP TINY STICK MAN ONLY FOR PRETTY LADY!"

Great so the crazy guy made nicknames too. "Stickman." Axton snickered earning a glare from Maya. Zer0 grimaced as the hulking man grabbed him as gently as he could, (which was enough to almost break the assassin's arm more) earning an involuntary groan of pain. A least Zer0 didn't have to walk because apparently he'd lost too much blood and when the psycho  
picked him up, he blacked out again.

Zer0 came to again to find himself lying on a couch in an actual warm room compared to outside, and was staring at a ceiling made of ice. A high pitched voice was rambling on while there was a quiet conversation nearby. The assassin pushed himself up and found his chest was snugly bandaged and his broken arm was tied into a makeshift sling.

The room was pretty large, it would have been comfortable if not for the dead frozen bodies and the destroyed robots set all over. Just like the one by the furnace. A claptrap unit. The thought made Zer0 grimace, knowing his headache was only going to get worse.

"Hey Zer0, you're awake!" A peppy voice startled him. The youngest girl was right by him holding out her hand to shake his. "My name's Gaige by the way. I'm a mechromancer." Zer0 slowly raised his good arm and shook Gaige's hand noticing hat her mechanical arm looked  
slightly battered. "Oh and by the way, that was awesome earlier before the train blew up! how'd you manage to have a helmet that can portray your emotions?"

Gaige looked curious in an innocent and eager way. Though Zer0 didn't allow any emotion to distract him, he did think it was sort of adorable how she was so innocent looking, but she came to Pandora, so she'd most likely not be what she seemed at all.

"Gaige you can wait till later to ask him, right now we need to think about trying to get somewhere safe, and somewhere we can get medicine. There was only one insta health vial that went to Maya." Axton came up, the arrogant smirk was still gone from the soldiers face.

Zer0 saw Maya curled up in another couch, the shards of metal were gone and the slices were half healed, but not entirely. Just enough that they wouldn't bleed profusely. Zer0 guessed she'd have a higher chance of infection with metal imbedded in her arm. Who knows how long everyone was out after the train explosion.

Salvador was curled up snoring away against the wall. He was still wounded badly, but it wasn't bothering him. Axton offered his hand out to Zer0 and he got up with the soldiers help grimacing as his bad arm twinged painfully. Zer0 then had a sudden panic as he felt a slight difference of weight on him. His sword, the one thing he'd still had, and the one thing he didn't want to lose, ever.

Zer0 swung his head around the room frantically and Axton must have noticed because he smiled and pulled Zer0's katana from his belt. "I found your sword by you, remembered you wielding it before. I thought you'd need it."

Zer0 took his sword relieved, "my sword, like a rose amongst thorns, thank you." Axton looked surprised for a moment at hearing the assassin's voice. "You talk for the first time and all you just said was poetry?" Axton said incredulously.

"It is not poetry soldier." Zer0 scoffed, "it is haiku, a fine art to achieve, friend you are naive."

"Um yeah technically it is."

Zer0 scowled and with it a frowny faceprojection, He was getting annoyed. Axton may be serious and know what to do on a battlefield, but he was immature and ignorant. "No it is not." Zer0 growled.

"It actually was." Gaige pitched in with a smirk on her face. "Even if haiku has certain rules to it, how you for example rhymed achieve and naive, that made it poetry."

Zer0 huffed, "fine then Gaige, you may be right, but it remains haiku."

"A guy can never beat a woman in a fight Zer0, especially a super smart teenager that built an arm single handedly, face it." he heard a giggle and turned to see Maya was awake and watching with  
amusement on her face.

He noticed that as soon as she saw his face, she looked away. This was rather confusing to him. He knew nothing of women and their weird behaviours.

"HAHAHA! YOU'RE AWAKE BUDDY!" The short guy abruptly punched Zer0 on the shoulder, not hard intentionally though. Inwardly Zer0 groaned, apparently, he was this obnoxious guy's new best friend. This was almost wrong too, he couldn't get attached to anyone, he could fail his mission in a million different ways.

That would soil his reputation for never failing a mission, and he'd also fail to capture or kill a siren. There were multiple amounts of people that could use this against him and send someone after him and anyone connected to him. Zer0 was the kind of guy that enjoyed killing, but to people that deserved it and got in his way. How could he fight Gaige? She was so young and innocent. He'd never want to lift a sword against her.

"Yes I am awake, please don't hit me there it hurt, what is your name?"

"SALVADOR! We'll be great amigos, you can teach me poetry too!"

"It is haiku." Zer0 said quietly, giving into the fact that everyone there were idiots and didn't understand anything beyond killing and stupidity.

Suddenly, a roar cut off Gaige's chuckle. And finally Claptraps talking came into focus, "it's Knuckle Dragger!"

"Who?" Axton replied dumbly since no one had heard Clap Trap saying anything about Bullymongs  
around here and the fact that they'll rip your eyes out.

A massive creature, presumably Knuckle Dragger leaped in through the hole in the ceiling  
and grabbed a screaming Clap Trap before pulling his eye out and leaping away.

"Well, that was random."

Axton and Salvador burst out laughing at Gaige's statement then cut off when they saw Maya glaring at them. This was particularly interesting since Maya was so awkward and shy socially, but then had the guts to shut Axton and Salvador, of all people, up with a single glare.

"GUNS IN THE GODAMN CABNET!" Krieg shouted making everybody jump and shut up. Krieg was pointing with his buzz axe and his nostrils were flaring. The five vault hunters followed the buzz axe and saw Clap Trap blindly rolling around and crashing into things. Axton snorted and soon Salvador and Gaige followed. They were laughing non-stop and eventually Maya too after her  
face finally twitched into a barley contained smile.

Zer0 and Krieg were standing there both confused, of course Krieg was confused, and not sure whether to take this seriously or not. Whatever it was, this would be a long trip to, wherever they were going.

Finally they stopped when Zer0 let out a sigh and broke open the cabinet and found five crappy guns a pile of trash and another insta-health. Axton came and picked up one of the repeaters with a look of distaste on his face, but he didn't say anything. Every one picked up a repeater then Maya who was last noticed Krieg standing by the other doorway with Clap Trap.

"Hey guys, Krieg doesn't have a weapon."

Kreig was silent twitching and saying things like "SHUT UP" and DON'T TALK TO ME!" until he finally groaned and shouted, "I DON'T NEED GUNS! I KILL WITH MY BUTCHERING TOOL!"

Zer0 winced at Kriegs loudness and wondered what or who he wastalking to. Of course he was pretty insane, and he'd been saying some pretty questionable things on the train before, like giving the impression that the psycho was trying to make an excuse to hurt everyone on it.

The assassin picked up the crappy repeater off the ground, knowing he'd have to find something better later, for example, a gun that actually had good accuracy and had better firing power. Axton nodded when everyone had a gun and the vault hunters waited while Clap Trap blindly tried to open the door to the outside of this relatively safe haven.

Zer0 waited impatiently then had a sudden curiosity, as if he hadn't been curious about this before. "Gaige, why would you cut your arm off? what purpose does it serve?"

Gaige grinned, well, I could show you while we wait for CLAP TRAP TO OPEN THE FRIGGIN DOOR!"

Zer0 was surprised, the teenager actually sounded slightly freaky. One minute she was happy and bouncy, then she was angry and then back to happy and bouncy. The mechromancer raised her arm and a light glowed from a spot on her wrist then a flash.

"And behold...Death Tra...oh shit."

The blasted and burnt up robot that had appeared seconds later fell into a pile of junk.

"More like Death Crap." Axton snickered. in return for this he got elbowed in the gut by an angry Maya.

Zer0 smiled in amusement as Gaige raced over and cried, "Oh no! My poor sweetie! What happened to you!"

"Death Crap must have, fallen apart in the blast, it looks like crap." Zer0 couldn't help teasing the hysterical teenager. Maya shot Zer0 a steaming glare too, which as much as he hated to admit it, made him cower slightly, while the "LOL on his helmet changed to a frowny face.

Gaige de-digistructed Death Trap as it was actually called and then her face grew cheerful again, "oh well, I'll just find the parts to fix him when we find a town." Then she skipped off into the now open door. Axton and Salvador exchanged raised eyebrow looks while Zer0 considered his curiosity about these people.

They weren't bad he could get along with them, but Zer0 wasn't there to make friends. He had a plan to capture the siren who he could only carefully personalize with in order to get to her.

His arm got a sharp shooting pain as he jumped down a small ledge and jarred it. Or maybe he'd just wait till they could find more healing hypos in the frozen wasteland also known as the Southern Shelf. Clap Trap was annoying, but Zer0 could handle him for a while since it was sort of funny to see the stupid robot try to make his way around with no eye.

The most everyone could do was hope that Clap Trap was leading them in the right way, and that they wouldn't freeze to death. He saw Maya and Gaige shivering and felt a twinge of pity for them. at least his own suit, though thin could protect him from any weather.

Zer0 shook his head, he couldn't think like this, not if he wanted to complete his mission.

A good thing to do would be to find out more about the other vault hunter's fighting styles. Axton could have some weapon like Gaige's especially since he was obviously part of a military force before he came here. Just as Zer0 was about to ask Axton, Gaige cut him off, "So Axton, you said you were from the Dahl military, don't soldiers get sabre turrets if they join or something?"

Axton gave the teenager an arrogant smile, "in the Dahl military, getting a sabre turret is a privilege and you only get it if you earned it."

Zer0 scowled angrily underneath his helmet at Axton's arrogance. So what if the soldier had a sabre turret? That would be easy to deal with. All you would have to do is slice the thing in half, Zer0's digistruct Katana was very capable of that and more being one of the two of its own kind in the universe.

Axton grinned and stopped forcing everyone to stop except for Clap Trap who raced on in the snow. "Hey little robot wait up!" Salvador shouted. Axton then said, "Now everyone brace yourselves, I want you all to meet my honey here."

The soldier threw a little box onto the ground and stayed grinning. The box sparked, then nothing happened but a small thin stream of smoke coming up out of it. Gaige burst out laughing, "well I think your turret is even more of a peice of crap than Death Trap! At least he digistructed!"

Axton turned red in the face and scooped up the turret box and changed the subject, "What about you Maya?"

Maya smiled and said, "well as you know I'm a siren, I can phase lock things or objects in the air  
like this." The siren held out her hand at Clap Trap with a look of concentration on her face then as her tattoos started glowing they dulled once again and Maya cried out in agony and fell towards the ground shaking. The places where the metal was embedded in the siren's arm tore open and started  
bleeding. Axton caught her in time and held her tightly with concern on his face.

Zer0 smiled beneath his mask, perfect, Maya couldn't use her powers now because of the train explosion, this would be easier than he thought. Though what if Zer0 didn't heal in time? Broken arms weren't easy to mend, even with healing hypos.

Everyone showed some sort of concern for Maya, even Krieg had his one eye wide, and he had his buzz axe hefted protectively. That was a little strange since, Krieg couldn't possibly have any connection, Then Zer0 remembered Krieg yelling before the assassin blacked out that he'd help him only for pretty lady.

Though it was impossible, or seemed impossible until now, Zer0 felt an odd twinge in his gut at Krieg and Axton who was holding the wounded siren carefully. The assassin didn't even understand why. He'd blocked and forgotten some of his essential emotions long enough ago so he could focus on his job and not make any sort of connections with his targets, or associates of his targets. Things went wrong when he made connections with his targets.

"AH BULLYMONGS!" Clap Trap suddenly shouted shrilly. Zer0 saw that Clap Trap had gone down a slope and was running around until he rolled of the edge of a small ridge and landed upside down in a snow bank. Axton snickered seeing the robot, then his eyes fell upon the four small bullymongs that were clambering over an ice shelf.

"Bullymongs." Zer0 began scornfully, taking his katana in his good hand even though it was opposite of what he usually used. "They lack the finesse, their deaths will be quick and easy, they will not see  
me."

Axton got up and grabbed Zer0's arm. "Hold on ninja, with that arm and your ribs, I don't think the bullymongs will die so easily, stay back and snipe at them. You seem like you are the kind of guy for that. And you too Maya. You can't fight properly with your arm."

Maya glanced at Zer0 and crossed her arms uncomfortably and grumbled, "fine then, I'll just stay here then." And plunked down on her butt angrily. Axton shrugged muttering, "women." Before Gaige slapped him in the gut with her metal arm.

Zer0 just sheathed his katana and plunked down beside Maya watching as the others had a blast killing the bullymongs.

"So..." Maya began awkwardly looking at the ground, "how's it going?"

"Fine, and you?"

"Um, good, great! Never could be better! If only my arm would stop burning right now!"

Zer0 couldn't help but let out an amused snort. Too bad Maya heard, because her face grew into  
a scowl, "you know Zer0, if I had my powers right now, you would be phase locked  
and I'd hold you over a cliff until you apologized to me!"

Something about the statement made the assassin snort again, "you just try siren, if my cloaking wasn't busted, you would regret that."

"Regret what?"

"Saying something so ignorant." Zer0 smirked, "if you knew, you would be dead before, you even touched me."

"you have a friggin broken arm! How would you even fight properly?!"

"With my awesome skill."

"You-! You know what! What the hell is wrong with you men! All of you are the same! You are such stupid idiots!"

Zer0 chuckled and a smiley face holo appeared over his helmet. Maya tried to keep an icy glare at him, but he could see that it was hard for her. But why? It was obvious enough that the siren was pissed off at Zer0 for laughing at her, so it was something else.

"hey ninja boy!" Axton hollered, "if you two are finished arguing we could use a little help!"

There were several adult bullymongs chasing Axton and Salvador who were screaming at the creatures and Krieg, while the psycho was running down the canyon, buzz axe flailing, screaming, "TIN GIRL! COME BACK!" Gaige was nowhere to be seen.

Maya suddenly burst out laughing and Zer0's face twitched into a smile before he held the repeater up at the bullymongs and aimed at one of them before pulling the trigger. He fired and one of the bullets pierced a bullymong's skull, but did little to it.

"great," Maya rolled her eyes at Zer0, "now you just pissed it off and it's gonna come and tear us apart."

Zer0 loaded the creature with bullets while Maya just sat there watching. After emptying one clip on it, it died finally. A bunch of money came flying out of its head and at the same time a "WTF" showed above Zer0's helmet.

"um...so things on Pandora have money in their skulls?" Maya had stood up probably having gained her strength back. Her eyebrows were raised in disbelief, and she seemed to have forgotten about  
her anger at Zer0 which made him slightly relieved for some reason.

"Hey good shot buddy!" Salvador shouted and then proceeded to beat a bullymong's skull in until it stopped moving. Axton killed the other one and then they came over dragging ammo and money with them. Salvador shouted excitedly, "we found six dollars!"

Maya rolled her eyes, "geez Salvador, it's not even that much, quit being an idiot already."

"NO!" Salvador shouted with a grin on his face, "chica, if I'm annoying you, this is going to be fun!"

Maya sighed, "Whatever then."

Zer0 chuckled and Maya whipped around with fire in her eyes, "you too! quit being such an idiot and grow up!"

Axton grinned cheekily, "I don't think that'll happen Maya.

The siren rolled her eyes and stormed away throwing over her shoulder, "I'm going to find Krieg and Gaige! So get your sorry asses moving!"

Axton rolled his eyes laughing, "just like the military all over again."

Zer0 noticed though that behind Axton's words, there was bitterness, and as he watched Maya storm away, there was some memory flashing in his eyes, obviously not to pleasant, andvery recent. Zer0 shrugged and followed the siren silently and eventually thegroup met up with Krieg and Gaige who were, throwing snow at each other. Yes snow.

Zer0 found this hard to believe until Krieg threw a snow ball toohard and hit Gaige, by accident, in the face. Krieg stopped as Gaige shouted angrily and started to yell like he was having an argument, "GO AWAY!" silence,"ARRRRGGGHHH! I DIDN'T MEAN IT!" and "FINE! I'M SORRY GAIGE!"

Gaige got over being angry really quickly and giggled, "oh don't worry Krieg, I'll always forgive you."

Krieg's eye seemed to light up and he let something out between a laugh and a snarl, probably a laugh, hopefully a laugh.

Maya sighed rolling her eyes and chuckling and said, "okay you two, come over and don't run off again. And Krieg," the psycho again listened to the siren without question, strangely enough, "please don't run away. We need to fight Knuckle Dragger with your help." The psycho nodded and then Maya lead the group towards the canyon and to the massive bullymong with Clap Traps help.

**If you enjoyed it, let me know!**


	3. The C0ntract0r

**and here's chapter 3! thank you kind supporters for the reviews so far!**

The vault Hunters were walking along suddenly very silent. Zer0 noted this very interesting how mean squabbles and disorganization could be brought into sudden and perfect agreement and trust. This was actually a very bad thing for him. if the group took to immediate trust and friendship, then it would be a harder to kidnap Maya. He'd have to figure something out. suddenly a face appeared over his helmet from his echo device he just realized he had, though he didn't remember receiving one before. The assassin stopped suspicious, but the rest of the group was unfazed by it. "Follow the little robot closely to Sanctuary, he can help you."

Then she was gone. Zer0 was going to ask one of the vault hunters about it when Axton turned and said, "don't worry about her, she came and said something to us about us being here for a reason and blah, blah, blah. You were unconscious when it happened." Zer0 nodded, that must have been why nobody seemed worried about it.

"hey look, I think we are almost there." Gaige pointed at a large area down a cliff.

"What makes you say that?" Axton frowned.

"It says on our echo devices genius." Maya stated dryly.

"Well, how the heck would I have known? I'm not some friggin technology genius!" Axton threw his hands up angrily.

"Yeah and neither am I amigo, but I figured it out!" Salvador laughed.

"okay guys we should focus," Maya raised her hands up to stop an argument from breaking out. "This is definitely the place-"

"hello vault hunters, Handsome Jack here." A strange voice began, but everyone knew that this was the guy who tried to kill them. "so you made it out of the explosion huh? well here's the problem in that. You see, you're still alive, and now I'm going to have to kill you. But if you could just off yourselves, that would be great. Okay bye pumpkin."

"Pumpkin?" Gaige stuck her tongue out in disgust, "this guy's got major issues!"

"-where Knuckle Dragger lives." Maya sighed finishing being cut off.

Zer0 suddenly found himself chuckling though he tried to stop and control himself. Maya glared at him, but Salvador started laughing too and so did Axton, and Gaige. Krieg watched the group with no apparent interest in his eye and screamed, "LET'S GET TO THE RIB CAGE SLAUGHTER!"

Axton slowly stopped laughing and said, "okay guys lets get focused. we'll do the same thing as before, Maya stay back," Maya grumbled mutinously at that, "and Zer0 you too."

Zer0 sighed, "a waste of talent, you will do bad without me, let me fight Axton."

"Hey! you could vouch for me you big jerk!" Maya shot at him.

"No."

Axton shook his head, "no Zer0, you stay back."

Zer0 snorted, there was no way he was going to stay back from the fighting, he was an assassin, he may not have his cloaking, and one arm may be broken, but he could fight just as well in any case as he had been trained to. The assassin sat down, "fine, I will stay here then."

Axton shrugged, "that's your loss."

Clap Trap led the way up the slope and stopped suddenly, "hey my vision just switched back on! I can see an incredibly handsome robot, and fierce looking minions, but that means that whoever took my eye, is very, very, close...

Knuckle Dragger leaped down from a shelf and roared throwing a huge broken vehicle. "uh oh..." Axton muttered.  
The fight broke out, while Zer0 and Maya sullenly watched the fight going on. "More bullymongs are approaching and they are outnumbered, arrgh! Stupid Axton!" Maya threw her arms up.

"come with me Maya, we will fight them together, I still have one arm." Zer0 finally stood up drawing his sword. Maya grinned and took her gun out while Zer0 tossed her his other gun. He didn't need it for this fight.

They leaped out and Zer0 skidded on the ground and underneath an adult bullymong that had pinned Gaige down, the creature roared and was distracted from its prey and faced Zer0 who was standing ready at its side. The creature went to leap but it roared and fell over to bleed to death, it's stomach and chest was gashed open.

Zer0 grinned evilly his helmet portraying the same emotion and jumped high over a monglet that tried to jump on him from behind. He saw Gaige watching him with awe, then his vision was fixed on aiming at its skull. Zer0 struck true and the Bullymong died instantly as the sword sliced a path through its skull.

"Zer0, Maya! I told you not to fight!" Axton yelled as he riddled a bullymong's throat full of bullets. "Too bad!" Maya grinned at the soldier before shooting another monster to death.

Zer0 suddenly found his eyes fixed upon the siren as a look of murderous rage consumed her face. She was deadly and strong. Blood flew by her as she loaded bullets directly into a monsters skull and an evil grin crossed her face. She was more than deadly she was-  
"HEY WATCH OUT!" Salvador yelled in his ears.

Zer0 was snapped out of his trance and he dodged the bullymong's claws just in time as Salvador held the rest of it back. Zer0 swung his katana and sliced a huge cut in the bullymong's neck and it was left to bleed out on the ground. Where was Knuckle Dragger? He should be around here somewhere...

There he was, Krieg was beating the crap out of the bullymong. It was sure tough Zer0 had to admit, its face was full of blood bruises, slices and it was blinded in one eye, but it kept trying to get at Krieg who was screaming, "STRIP THE FLESH! SALT THE WOUND!"

The psycho sure was stripping the flesh, not salting the wound but stripping the flesh. Finally Knuckle Dragger collapsed dead and Zer0 cautiously went over and picked up Clap Trap's eye that was attached to the bullymong. It was all fine, the Bullymongs that were left were killed and now the vault hunters stood around raggedly.

Maya walked up to Axton, who averted his eyes embarrassed and finally swallowed and said, "uh, I'm sorry that I wouldn't let you fight, I underestimated you and I was worried about you." Maya smiled, "now you should let Zer0 and I fight."

Axton scratched his neck awkwardly and nodded, "fine, let's get to that Hyperion barge now."

They climbed up the slope and waited, tired and cold while Clap Trap bragged about his ability to open doors and such and then they locked. "Intruders detected." *Slam!*

"well that's great, I hear that being eaten alive by bullymongs isn't so bad." Clap Trap threw his arms up.

"Great," Gaige grumbled, "stupid robot's gonna get us killed."

"Hold on just a sec." everyone jumped as the same person's voice came up. "executing phase shift." the doors unlocked and the woman smiled. "Who are you?" Zer0 asked intrigued. "you can call me angel, I'm here to guide you." The woman laughed. Then she was gone.

None of the other vault hunters seemed to notice, or maybe it was just Zer0 but a strange look crossed Maya's face when the woman said 'phase shift'. Maya turned her eyes to Zer0 and he involuntarily looked away. He couldn't be thinking like this, what ever was going on. He could get close with Maya, but only to gain her trust. That was all.

Zer0 stepped inside feeling warmer, but not much warmer air in the Hyperion barge. Gaige breathed out, "holy crap, if I have to be out in the cold anymore, I'll be as sick as death."

Axton sighed, "if we had shields, you wouldn't be so cold, I wouldn't be so cold, we all wouldn't be so cold!"

Gaige was about to say something but it was cut off by a sneeze. She shivered, "yeah, I don't think the cold did a-any good."

"Rest here." Angel came back, "you have a long journey ahead of you."

"No shit we have a- OH GUNS!" a chest came up out of the floor and opened revealing a bunch of guns for everyone. "HOORAY!" Salvador clapped his hands together like a little kid.

Zer0 looked at the selection, no sniper rifles unfortunately, he picked up a fairly good looking pistol which was second best to a sniper rifle for him and armed it.

All the vault hunters were armed soon and closed the barge doors to prevent the local wildlife from getting at them, only a small opening in the direction they were going was unable to be closed. Axton insisted upon a watch, but only Krieg would, and that didn't sit well with anyone but Maya. "Why do you even trust Krieg so much? Axton asked Maya. "He saved me." she said simply before lying close to Gaige to keep the seventeen year old warm.

Zer0 laid down and pretended to fall asleep, he slowed his breathing while watching until everyone was asleep then he silently stood up and slipped out the opening which just accommodated his thin figure.

Zer0 jumped from ice shelf to ice shelf then as soon as he was far enough away out of sight and hearing then waited after making sure he hadn't been followed.

"did you find her?" the voice of his contractor sounded in Zer0's echo.

"yes."

"why have you not contacted me for two days."

"I was delayed, there were some complications, I am stranded here."

"but you have the siren by you?"

"yes, she will not escape me."

"good, report back to me of your status tomorrow after sunset."

"of course."

Then the echo was silent. Zer0 exhaled then looked around before returning, wishing deception was working, this was dangerous, hopefully he could fix his cloaking device soon.

Zer0 slipped back into the barge and all was well, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, nobody had noticed. Zer0 closed his eyes and calmed himself down with deep breathing. Soon he drifted off into a dreamless world that unfortunately did not last long enough.


	4. Hammerl0ck and Liars Berg

**annnnddd chapter 4! I sort of rushed this chapter since I wanted to get it up really badly since I've been so busy! But here it is!**

**let me know if you enjoyed it through a review or favourite or follow!**

"TIME TO WAKE UP!" Zer0 jumped up as Salvador yelled in his ears. "jeez finally, I thought that waking up Salvador was hard enough, never mind Krieg, but you? you're like some friggin rock." Gaige stated dryly. Zer0 slowed his beating heart and said, "I'm ready to go,"

soon they were out of the barge and walking. Gaige kt asking Axton if they were there yet, Krieg was banging his buzz axe in an annoying way against the ground, plus he almost hit Zer0 with it while throwing it up in the air.

Hours later, Gaige who was coughing some pretty nasty stuff sniffed and moaned,

"Axton, are we there yet?"

"For the tenth time no!" Axton threw his arms up. "Clap Trap won't say anything and my echo map won't reveal much and you have been asking me this for an hour!"

Gaige made a face, "sorry I offended you oh great one."

Axton growled and whipped around. "well why don't you see if you can figure out where we are since you're the genius!"

Gaige was about to shoot back at the soldier when Maya shouted, "you know what? Why don't you chattering pests shut up already!"

Axton opened his mouth but Maya fixed him with a glare and said, "NO!"  
Axton rolled his eyes but turned back around, Gaige snickered but Maya shushed her too.

They were walking in silence again. everyone was unusually quiet until the evening. Axton pointed over at a cliff. "why don't we find a cavee here. there's bound to be one."  
The group consented, then they saw it. Liars Berg.

"finally!" Maya sighed, probably relieved to be able to get away from the bickering going on.

They climbed down the cliff and followed Clap Trap killing the bullymongs outside of the bandit infested village. "Welcome to Liars Berg! My old pal Hammerlock can fix me up." Clap Trap said unlocking the gate.

"please do deal with the bandits in this town." a new voice spoke to them through the echos. "if only bandits were all, but why Clap Trap? I must have been horribly cruel to puppies in a previous life to deserve this treatment."

Zer0 snorted amused, this Hammerlock person was quite strange.

The gate just fell off its hinges then the bandits went into action, as Handsome Jack put out an echo wide call for the capture of the vault hunters. The bandits couldn't of course pass up an opportunity for a massive reward so They tried without success to kill the vault hunters.

when the bandits were all dead Hammerlock sighed in relief. "thank you good people. allow me to unlock my doors, but let Clap Trap go first, it would be better."  
Zer0 wondered why then he figured it out as Clap Trap rolled right into a fence and fell back after having been electrocuted.

Everyone stood in surprise then suddenly Gaige burst into a laugh that ended in a bout of coughing. Axton snickered and so did Maya. Salvador was laughing his usual booming laugh and Zer0 didn't really care. He was pretty exhausted and his arm was begging to throb. There were no health vials anywhere in the past couple of days and his arm needed to be healed faster.

Hammerlock came out of his home and shut off the electric fence around his place to keep bandits away. "welcome brave vault hunters. I am sir Hammerlock, at your service."

"Well now, he has some real manners." Gaige giggled.

he opened the gate. "thank you for taking care of those bandits. Flynt's men raided the town a while ago while I was up here studying Bullymongs. If you hadn't come, the bandits would have made off with me like nothing. But do come into my home, you all look like you're going to die out here. you should rest yourselves up while I turn the power to the place back on."

Hammerlock led the group up to his house and ushered them inside. It was warm and cozy, just perfect. Zer0 sighed, he had to get some rest really badly, but he also needed to get an insta-health vial, and also he had to get a hold of his contractor later. Instead, the assassin yawned and laid down on one of the couches. _Just a few minutes_, he thought closing his eyes.

Zer0 jolted himself awake. How long was he asleep for? It must have been most of the night because everyone was inside and asleep. He had to get a hold of his contractor right now. Zer0 silently stood up swiftly looking around before carefully proceeding out the door of Hammerlock's house. Zer0 carefully shut it then ran down the slope and hid up in the empty grave yard.

Zer0 waited silently crouched behind a wall waiting for the sound of footsteps or a door opening or closing, but nothing was there. Zer0 exhaled and dialled in the echo and the voice of his contractor answered.

"Zer0, finally you contacted me. I've been waiting."

"I know."

"What is the condition of the siren right now?"

"She is alive and well, but she can't use her powers, the time is right but..."

"Yes I am we'll aware of the complications."

Zer0 was surprised for a moment. The man had just implied that he was watching he assassin. That was sort of unusual and odd.

"Just keep an eye on the siren for now. You need to find a better position to strike. when you get to Sanctuary, I'll have a plan by then."

Zer0 nodded, "I'll contact you again soon." Then he hung up.

The assassin stood up yawning. He was still tired, but he had to go to the vending machines and get an insta-health vial for his arm. Zer0 walked down the path and deposited the correct amount of money into the machine.

"where have you been?"

The assassin spun around about to draw his gun but relaxed when he saw Axton leaning against a building wall glaring at Zer0 suspiciously.

"out for a walk."

"I see, then who were you talking to?"

"talking? what do you mean?" Zer0 gripped the handle of his sword ready to draw it if he had to. Hopefully he wouldn't, it would be hard to explain Axton's disappearance to the other vault hunters at this point.

Axton's eyes darkened, "I heard you talking to someone." Zer0 flicked his eyes to see that Axton's hand was hiding something in the shadows of the building, a knife. Then Axton probably knew, or was suspicious and the soldier didn't need to know of the mission either.

Zer0 took action. Just because his cloaking was broken, it didn't mean he couldn't attack Axton without him knowing. The assassin drew his sword and in a blink of an eye kicked the soldier to the ground and muffled his surprised shout.

Zer0 held his sword at Axton's throat, "I wouldn't try that, try hiding your knife better." he kicked the fallen knife away from Axton's reach. "what did you hear?" the assassin asked deathly quiet.

Axton swallowed nervously at being faced with the tip of Zer0's sword. "I-I heard you saying something about some woman or s-something, I heard nothing else though!"

"In other words, you heard everything I said, am I correct?"

Axton was sweating when he nodded. "I-I won't say a thing! I promise, just let me up!"  
Zer0 hesitated, Axton might be tempted to stalk Zer0 if he thought that something wasn't right with the assassin, he would have to dispose of the soldier otherwise. But Axton could be trustworthy if he learned the consequences of interfering with Zer0 and his mission.

"How can I trust you? You might interfere with me, and you might die."  
Axton shook his head, "I promise not to interfere, period. Please just let me up!"

Zer0 sheathed his sword, "careful where you tread, I will be watching you, keep your promise."

Axton got up hastily retrieving his knife. Zer0 stared levelly at Axton who seemed to be deciding on whether or not to attack. Instead the soldier walked away with a last nervous glare. Zer0 waited until he was out of sight then bent to pick up the insta-health. The assassin sighed as he inserted it in his arm and it began to heal almost instantly.

Zer0 realized if he wanted to be successful, he would have to be much more careful. He wasn't the only one here who had light feet apparently. If Axton said a word about the conversation, then Zer0 would have to silence him.


	5. Disc0vered

**And yet again I'm late and inconsistent with my posting. But ****Before you go on, I have a few things to say.**

**1- thank you to my close followers. I'm really happy you enjoy my work**

**2- to which ever guest that was that left the negative review, if you don't like my story then ignore it. Plus, when you just say "gay" and leave a frowny emoticon, I think you are stupid and immature and it was honestly just hilarious for me to see that word. In other words I don't really care, even though this is becoming very lengthy and would appear that I do care And you'll probably never see this anyways...**

**3- anyway, let me know what you thought and whatever if you liked it.**

**now...**

"Hey Axton, you look like you've seen a ghost." Gaige stated with a yawn the next morning, "did you see a ghost?"

Axton looked like he hesitated for a moment and his face went a little bit whiter than last night. Zer0 fixed the soldier with a glare that didn't fail to see or rather feel. Axton swallowed, "oh-uh I just had a bad dream, that's all." Zer0 inwardly sighed. Axton was a horrible liar but Gaige didn't question him anymore, at least.

Zer0 stood up, "it's time to move, start getting up and ready."

Gaige chuckled, "aw, no fancy pants haiku today Zer0? And why do we have to rush? We can stay a little longer I"m sure." Gaige flopped back down on her couch asserting the fact that she wasn't going to be moving anywhere. Zer0 couldn't stop himself from smiling. "Okay I guess." Though today was a good day, he would finally be able to use his formerly broken arm now. The intsa-health did the trick for sure, because when Zer0 removed his arm and swung his katana around a bit, his arm only felt a slight bit of resistance, but no pain.

Satisfied, Zer0 decided that now that they were in a town, well, it wasn't really a town, it only used to be, he might as well look for the correct parts to fix his cloaking device with or he wouldn't be able to use deception. The cloaking device didn't really look like much, it was just a small dark chip that went into his helmet. Zer0 discovered though that the chip was actually only damaged because of the fiery blast from the train explosion. It wasn't anything that couldn't be repaired, but it was a matter of finding the right parts. Zer0 removed the chip from his helmet with some difficulty and examined it carefully. The whole thing was pretty scorched and for now zer0 hoped that he could find the replacement part that would just activate deception mode.

"Oh hey! I know what you need to fix that!" Gaige shouted making Zer0 flinch. the teenager had been leaning over his shoulder for all of three seconds. It was very impressive, this young woman was a prodigy in the area of mechanical things. "I saw an AI chip lying on the table back in Clap Trap's place! If you got one of those I could salvage the part and fix your cloaking device!"

Zer0 smiled, "that would be helpful, but it is too far away, we don't have time."

"I bet you didn't notice that fast travel station though. It was in Clap Trap's place, and there' one here too."

"Oh." Zer0 hadn't actually noticed, he should have, but he didn't unfortunately. He walked out of Hammerlock's home without a word intent on getting his cloaking fixed. Behind him he heard Maya say, "What's with him?"

Gaige answered back, "oh Zer0's just getting a part to fix his cloaking device."

"Cloaking? He has cloaking?" That was Axton, a tone of disbelief and slight dread behind his voice. Fortunately The others didn't seem to notice and Gaige replied, "yeah! isn't it great!"

"Um...yeah, just great! Completely fine!"

Zer0 sighed, Axton was going to blow his cover way to soon. Zer0 was out of hearing after that last statement anyways and standing at the fast travel station that he now remembered seeing but not really paying much heed to. He looked at his available destinations, there was only Liars Berg and then there was Clap Traps home. Zer0 keyed in for Clap Trap's place and then there he was.

Zer0 drew his sword listening for any signs of trouble, but heard nothing except the forlorn whistling of the wind outside. Zer0 went through the hallway and into the next room cautiously and found the table with the AI chip on it. It looked slightly damaged but assassin picked it up then pocketed it before going back to the fast travel station. In Liars Berg everyone was now up and checking out the deserted town. Zer0 found Gaige, who was looking around for metal parts. There were some lying around that looked like they would be used for her robot or something.

"Gaige, I have the AI chip."

The mechromancer looked up and exclaimed, "great, that's perfect! Can I have your cloaking device now?"

Zer0 nodded and removed the chip from his helmet and handed it to Gaige. Gaige took it and then with the AI chip went back to Hammerlock's home, probably where she could work, and also where she would have the tools. Zer0 began to wander around. He looked around the places around Liars Berg, finding the vending machines, storages of money and ammo, and also the bounty board where Hammerlock was hanging out with Clap Trap. The other vault hunters were wandering around too. When Axton passed Zer0 he gave the assassin a look of suspicion that said, I've got my eyes on you, and he passed Krieg who was muttering things about ribs and living sausages. Zer0 didn't want to know.

Zer0 finally came upon the gate that led outside where all the bandits and monsters were. He noticed that the gate was opened up already and saw fresh footprints leading out. Zer0 followed them and saw a path of carnage with the prints. Some dead local wildlife filled with bullet holes, and dead bandits. There was another set of footprints and Zer0 realized he hadn't seen Maya or Salvador. The two must've gone out together. For some reason though, it bothered Zer0 slightly and he didn't like the fact that Salvador and Maya were walking around the glacier alone. Zer0 dismissed that as the fact that Maya could be in danger with the unpredictable gunzerker and it could ruin his mission.

Then he saw the two, faint shapes, one taller and the other shorter. Zer0 waited until they were closer to see that they were laughing and carrying large bundles of fur. Zer0 bounded lightly down the icy cliff and apparently Maya never noticed him because when Zer0 landed Maya flinched away with a small gasp and dropped her bundle of fur. Salvador laughed, "Hey amigo! we were out collecting Bullymong fur for Hammerlock and Clap Trap. They're giving us guns for a reward! You should have come."

Maya recovered and picked up her bundle of fur awkwardly and said, "yeah, it was pretty great. Salvador showed me some new gun wielding techniques, and hand to hand combat too." Zer0 was getting uncomfortable as Maya talked to him. She kept looking then flicking her eyes away as she spoke. Zer0 was beginning to fidget and Salvador seemed to be catching onto this silent exchange. He was about to open his mouth and probably blurt something stupid out, based on the knowing smile on his face, when Zer0 cut off the gunzerker, "I should get back now." Zer0 turned away feeling relived as he turned his back and leaped up onto the rocks and sprinted through the gate.

Zer0 sighed as he disappeared from sight of he two vault hunters and went up into Hammerlocks home where Gaige was still fixing his cloaking device. "how is it going?" Zer0 asked quickly. Gaige smiled and stood up from the table she was sitting at, "I think I've fixed it, well part of it. The AI chip was slightly damaged and I could only take some parts off of it. But now your cloaking should work though its pretty basic. You can only go into deception mode for about five seconds before it shuts down and if you attack something during that time, you will be thrown out of deception too." Gaige frowned, "if I had the correct parts then I would be able to restore the device to how it previously was, but we'll have to wait."

Zer0 nodded and took the cloaking chip from Gaige before inserting it back into his helmet. "Thank you very much, you are a very kind girl, and very smart too."

Gaige looked at the ground and scuffed her feet embarrassed. She mumbled, "well I am a mechromancer, and I really like building and repairing things so...yeah."

Zer0 smiled amused at the teenagers clumsy response and a smiley emoticon popped up over his helmet. Zer0 then left the building wanting to test out his cloaking device. He thought to try it out on some bandits or bullymongs, but they were probably all gone anyways. Zer0 grinned when an idea came up in his mind. This wasn't exactly right of him to do and he really wasn't supposed to be famillairizing himself with a certain vault hunter like this, but it would be just sort of interesting to see the reaction.

Zer0 slipped away silently out of sight and he found Maya standing over at the grave yard with her back turned. Perfect.

The assassin snuck up behind her and then tapped her on the shoulder with a grin. At just the right moment he disappeared leaving a hologram of himself standing behind the siren. Maya whipped around wide eyed then she backed up with a yelp. Zer0 had a few seconds to do this as it displayed on his visor. Then he slipped around her and waited. Maya narrowed her eyes angrily and was about to say something when the hologram disappeared and Maya gasped in surprise. Zer0 was grinning at Maya who still didn't turn around then he said, "how hilarious, Maya you fell for my trap, prepare to be scared."

Maya whipped around then stumbled back her face turning red. Zer0 laughed at the siren who was trying to glare at him but failed anyways. "Zer0 you asshole! It's not funny! Why'd you even have to scare me!"

"It was funny."

"hah, hah, I'm sure you can tell I'm laughing." Maya replied coldly.

"I stand by the fact, that it was hilarious, to see your reaction."

Maya's face turned redder and she whipped around and stomped off grumbling. Zer0 chuckled lightly. At least his cloaking worked. But why did he feel he had to prank Maya of all people in the group? She was his target. he could have frightened Gaige, or Axton instead. Salvador and Krieg were out of the option since it didn't seem like a good idea to go around pranking them. Zer0 still thought it had been pretty hilarious to prank Maya but he couldn't do that anymore. Zer0 walked down to the town deciding to find out if he could do any jobs when he encountered Axton whose eyes were narrowed in anger.

Zer0 stopped in front of Axton passively waiting for what the soldier had to say. Axton then hissed quietly, "Zer0, whatever you are planning to gain by playing this little game of being nice to Maya, you'd better watch your step. Because I've got my eyes on you too." Axton jabbed Zer0 in the shoulder with his finger. "If you even touch your sword while looking in her direction" Axton jabbed Zer0 again, "I. Will. make. Sure. You regret doing that for the rest of your life."

"Then you've figured it out." Zer0 spoke menacingly.

Axton nodded angrily, "I'm not stupid. The only person in this group with powers that don't work right now because of injuries is Maya. And whatever you are planning to do, I will stop you if I have to."

Zer0 snorted, "just try soldier boy, you would not even know, if I ended you."

Axton snarled, "are you threatening me?"

"Yes I am, but I'd call it a challenge. "

"I'll show you a challenge!" Axton pulled out his gun and aimed it at Zer0's head.

"I wouldn't try that, if I were you I'd back down," Zer0 drew his sword, "you won't win this fight."

"Try me." Axton snarled. "He pulled the trigger and the bullet pierced Zer0's armour. Instead of falling over to bleed out, the hologram disappeared and Zer0 reappeared unscathed and swung the handle of the blade hard hitting Axton on the head. The soldier grunted and fell down before rolling away, holding the spot Zer0 stuck him. "is that all you got you piece of shit?"

"you have challenged me, you will not win this fight, I won't go easy." Zer0 leaped out of the way of Axton who lunged and tried to wrestle Zer0 to the ground. "too slow." Zer0 taunted.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU IDIOTS DOING!"

Zer0 turned as Maya came running over her eyes staring daggers. Zer0 in that moment of distraction, which he cursed himself for being distracted, he felt himself being flung to the ground and Axton punching him in the gut. Zer0 landed heavily gasping and tried to roll away but Axton held him down firmly. "too slow huh?" Axton glowered.

"Axton, Zer0, why are you attacking each other?!"

Zer0 quickly had to think up a lie, even though Axton could be easily proved wrong about his accusations, it would be better to lie. "Axton challenged me to, a friendly duel together, is that so bad?" Zer0 replied quickly cutting off Axton.

"Then why did a gun go off?"

"Because I went to put my gun to the side and it accidently fired off. None of us were hurt though." Axton surprisingly enough joined in on the lie. But it was pretty obvious why he lied, Maya wouldn't believe any accusations that Axton had against Zer0. The assassin wrested himself from Axton's grasp and slipped away standing up to face Maya slightly bent because of the hard blow Axton delivered with his fist. Maya crossed her arms her eyebrows raised and Zer0 saw the rest of the group come running over to see what was going on. "Why was there gunfire?" Gaige asked them. "Because,' Maya replied, "these two idiots were practicing their battle skills and they got out of hand."

"Hey! Sounds like fun!" Salvador shouted.

Axton smiled and nodded, "oh yeah, lots of fun!" Zer0 could tell that Axton's smile was forced and strained. Anger hidden behind it. Zer0 smiled smugly and he was sure that Axton could feel it from him.

Krieg immediately lost interest and left. So did Gaige saying, "well if everything's okay, I'll just be working on fixing Death trap then." Salvador walked away grumbling something in Spanish and than Maya was left. She looked worried for a moment then said briskly, "well if you two are done, just let us know next time you two are going to duel each other. And be more careful with guns, we can't afford bad injuries right now." Then Maya left.

"Oh, I'll be careful alright." Axton muttered ominously before walking away.

Zer0 sighed. He had to get rid of Axton somehow, but it would be difficult. Zer0 knew that Axton must have been high ranking in the Dahl military, or he wouldn't have a sabre turret, and he also wouldn't be so skilled. The soldier was good even quite impressive at hand to hand combat, but not as good as Zer0 was, though he was still a danger to the assassin.

Zer0 went over too Hammerlock who didn't at all seem concerned about the sound of gunfire. Zer0 didn't press anything about that subject and asked the man if there were any jobs to do. Hammerlock shook his head, "sorry, I don't have a job available, but I can offer you the next one that comes up."

Zer0 shook his head, "don't save me a job, we will leave here tomorrow, unless its before dawn."

Hammerlock nodded, "then I will see if there is anything to do. If not, then you can be on your way."

Zer0 left then. Since there was only one thing left to do today, which was get a hold of his contractor, then he would just sit on the rooftops and meditate until then. Nothing in that was suspicious at all, except it was annoying that Axton wasn't taking his eyes off of Zer0. That could be dealt with easily though.

As evening was falling at the right time, Zer0 got up and pulled out his gun. First he would get Axton's attention and lead him on a false trail. Zer0 was well aware he was being followed when he left and headed for a larger bandit settlement on some frozen dock in the middle of the glacier. Zer0 killed the bandits there feeling satisfied as their blood soaked his sword. Then he picked through the loot and walked around the side to leave Axton's sights.

Zer0 crouched in the shadows of a rooftop and waited until his target came around the corner. Zer0 was about to draw his sword but stopped when he saw that it wasn't Axton, it was only Gaige. Zer0 sighed in relief and jumped down startling the teenager.

"Wha-oh hey Zer0! I saw you going out with your weapons and I wanted to just um...you know...watch you, fighting." Gaige scuffed the ground her face red in embarrassment. "I hope I didn't startle you though...I was just a little curious and I-I wanted to ask if you would teach me how to fight better..."

Zer0 smiled, she was so innocent. "I think I'll teach you, I owe you for fixing, my cloaking device."

"Really?!" Gaige's eyes lit up.

A smiley face popped up over Zer0's visor. "I can't right now though, I have to finish a job, Hammerlock asked me." That was a total lie, but necessary.

Gaige nodded her eyes dimming in disappointment, "oh, okay then. You'll still teach me right?"

Zer0 nodded. Gaige muttered, "goodnight Zer0." before she went away in the gathering darkness back to Liars Berg. Zer0 watched until she disappeared into the gate then he pulled out his echo communicator and dialed in his contractor.

"Good, you called." The man's voice came up. For some reason, though Zer0 hadn't actually met the man, which was rather strange for a person to do, Zer0 had a creeping suspiscion that he knew this voice from somewhere, and a new thought surfaced, though he hadn't thought about it when he took this job, the man's voice was slightly distorted, like it was fake.

"Yes." Zer0 replied after some hesitation.

"anything new to report?"

"We are leaving for Sanctuary tomorrow, There I can conduct my business." Zer0 broke his haiku just this one time since it would be easier to describe what had happened today. " There is one problem though one of the-"

"Yes, yes I know." The man replied impatiently, "I know that Axton suspects of your mission and also that he got into a fight today. Just be more careful and if you must, kill the soldier."

How did this man know what Zer0 was doing today? And what about Axton, how did this man know about the soldier? Did the contractor know of the other vault hunters?

"I understand that you would like me to contact you frequently, but it is difficult with my cloaking broken, I need my own time to contact you from now on." Zer0 spoke quietly.

"fine," the voice said, "I can give you that time. Just don't forget to contact me if something else happens or when you have the siren. I can meet with you anywhere when you have her, just let me know."

"Understood." Zer0 finished before he hung up and put the echo communicator away. Zer0 stood up and sighed, it was either him, or things were getting wierd on Pandora. Zer0 left the dock and thoughtfully began to walk slowly back feeling the wind blow into his back. The night sky was like every other night so far where there were constant northern lights dancing up in the air. Pandora was a strange planet. Zer0 could feel that there were secrets being kept. Ones that had to do with Handsome Jack.


	6. The Questi0n

The vault hunters followed Clap Trap who for some reason insisted on going through ever dangerous place on the way to Captain Flynt's ship. Some places were unavoidable, but simple bandits were no challenge to Zer0 or anyone else, except for Gaige, who obviously relied on the now broken Death Trap to fight her battles.

Zer0 watched Gaige try to shoot a bandit from a long distance with her shot gun and shook his head. he would definitely have to show her how to use a gun properly. everything about the way she aimed and held the gun was pretty bad. So why was she on Pandora? This wasn't a place for teenagers never mind teenagers that have never held a gun until they arrived on the planet.

Zer0 killed a last psycho with ease. it had been screaming something randomly disturbing as every other psycho on Pandora did. Not as if it was a new thing to the assassin. He'd seen worse in his entire career so far but Pandora was still a different place than most planets. but the border worlds were usually like that. There was a reason for their name.

"I've been trying to think of a name for the pony," Handsome Jack came up again in the midst of explaining about a diamond pony he just got. It was frankly annoying, but sort of funny. Salvador thought it was absolutely hilarious, everything Jack said, and Zer0 had to agree, but in a morbid funny way. "I thought of naming it piss for brains in your honor but no that seems immature..."

Gaige snickered, "piss for brains. really Jack, that's all you can come up with? A three year old could do better."

"SHUT UP! I'm trying to think here- oh I got it, I'll name it Buttstallion in your honor."

"wow. that's sooo insulting." Maya rolled her eyes.

"Oh, and this Buttstallion I'm telling you about, it's a real thing its not a sculpture or anything, it's a real- here I'll show you. Buttstallion come here girl! Buttstallion say high." A whinny came through the echo and then Jack continued with the obvious,, "Buttstallion says high."

"That was pretty random." Axton said bluntly.

"yeah no shit Axton," Gaige replied, "of course that asshole's random. He was trying to immaturely name a "diamond" pony. Since when did you ever hear of a diamond pony?"

"Actually, I saw on once!" Salvador pitched in.

"Then you were probably drunk."

"No I wasn't I was- oh wait you might be right. But if zombies can exist, why not diamond ponies?"

"Zombies? what, where!" Axton panicked at the mention of Zombies.

"Didn't you ever hear of Jakobs Cove?"

"No, obviously I didn't."

"Mi Albueba told me about four adventurers that went and cleaned out the place and killed the infamous Doctor Ned. He made an army of-"

"OKAY, I don't want to hear anymore!" Axton interrupted Salvador.

"Why? are you afraid of scary stories?" Maya teased.

"No! Not at all!"

"Then why are you shaking?"

"What? I'm not shaking!"

"This is really off topic," Gaige cut into Axton and Maya, "We were debating on whether diamond ponies can exist and not-"

"MINION, THIS WAY!"

Gaige turned her eyes to Clap Trap who was standing on a ramp and waving his arms. gaige narrowed her eyes and shouted, "SHUT UP YOU ANNOYING PIECE OF SHIT! YOU JUST INTERRUPTED ME!"

Gaige then turned back and continued, "anyways, as I was saying we were talking about whether diamond ponies are real or not, and NOT ZOMBIES!"

"kay, sheesh calm down crazy kid." Axton muttered. This was met with getting an elbow to the ribs from Maya.

Zer0 sighed and shook his head before heading past everyone and up to Clap Trap to wait. "lets go!" Clap Trap shouted then he rolled off a ramp and fell to the ground. Zer0 sighed and nimbly jumped down after the robot with the others following.

A new person suddenly came up in each of the vault hunters echos. It sounded like the bandit Captain Flynt. "Alright vault hunters, here's how this is gonna work. My first mate Boom Bewm is gonna kill ya, and I'm going to play hopscotch in your chest cavity!"

"Sounds painful." Axton said with a smile.

"ahh Flynt that kidder. I'm sure you'll be fine." Clap Trap replied very unconvincing. "You'll probably even get to keep most of your limbs, maybe!"

"Riiight," Gaige rolled her eyes, "that's soo encouraging."

"This is gonna be great!" Clap Trap cheered rolling away. "I'm finally going to get my revenge on Captain Flynt and his- OH GOD! IT'S BOOM BEWM!" Clap Trap ran away and hid somewhere and Axton snickered "Boom Bewm. What kind of name is-" Axton stopped and everyones eyes fell upon the bandits.

"That's a big gun!" Salvador cheered.

"Salvador this isn't the time-" Maya was then cut off by a marauder that jumped up onto the cannon.

"LIGHT THE FUSES BITCHES!" the bandit presumably Boom screamed, "I'M READY TO BLOW!"

"I"LL BLOW YOUR FACE OFF WITH MY SOUL!" Krieg shouted and started charging towards the gun. Axton opened his mouth to say, "KREIG! We should wait and make a-"

"Hey! Don't start the fun without me!" Salvador cheered and ran after Kreig.

"Nope. no planning, we are going to KILL THIS GUY!" Gaige cried with a bloodlust in her eyes not very common to be seen in a teenager. Unless they were psychopathic, which the mechromancer certainly was not though she just might be a little. But Zer0 took back what he thought of her before maybe Gaige did belong here. Of course even a few days on Pandora can change a person. Zer0 had heard stories of people who went to this exact planet for example, and with a couple of days they became raving lunatics.

"Lets not waste our time, these bandits must shortly die, don't miss all the fun." Zer0 said before joining in the fighting. He ran towards the cannon hoping that Krieg and Gaige had Bewm's attention, and the psycho bandits that kept coming out of nowhere. Zer0 ducked from cover to cover periodically dodging a blast from the cannon. Where Axton and Maya tried to wear the cannon down with their guns, Zer0 had a better plan. He jumped up onto the cannon surprising Boom. And unsheathed his katana. Instead of killing the bandit right away, he ducked under a punch and went into deception. Zer0 smirked as Boom went to shoot the hologram and said, "your eyes deceive you, an illusion fools you all, I move for the kill."

Boom whipped around and didn't even have time to blink because Zer0 swung his sword with precision and Boom slumped down and his head rolled down the side of the cannon and stopped staining the snow red. Zer0 kicked the body out and jumped in the cannon seat. "If I were you, I would move out of the way." Zer0 said into Maya's echo where she was dueling with the midget Bewm. Zer0 pressed the button to fire and the little bandit blew up.

Zer0 smiled pleased with himself and jumped down finishing the landing with a roll. "show off." Gaige muttered with a smile pushing Zer0 off balance when he straightened up.

"Hahah! Nice one buddy!" Salvador clapped Zer0 on the back.

"Oof, all this abuse, I can't take It." Zer0 jokingly groaned.

Maya chuckled, "yeah, well prepare for more." She picked up a ball of snow and hurled it at Zer0. He ducked and then with a light laugh dodged behind Maya and tripped her. Maya fell and landed with a muffled thud on her butt. "Hey no fair!" The siren shouted indignantly, "I'm not even close to as fast as you!"

Zer0 chuckled, "that's your problem." He offered his hand out, his mind in another place, not focused on what he should be really doing. He then snapped himself back into reality almost whisking his hand away. Maya grabbed it, her skin warm even through his glove. The siren got up and for a moment the two were frozen, their eyes locked together half awkward, and half something else Zer0 didn't understand.

Maya broke the connection pulling away quickly before anyone could notice. But Zer0 didn't fail to notice and neither did the siren. His stomach churned nervously at the thought of what just occurred and he once again scolded himself for falling for that trap. Maya was a siren, a legendary female warrior notorious for their ability to swoon men into a trance before she killed them. Of course he was feeling funny around her. But the assassin was different from humans in so many ways, he wasn't exactly a human anyways, and in this moment he began to question himself for the first time in many years. And what about Maya? She didn't seem like the person to want to be the kind of siren from the stories. She was blunt and honest, and the largest quality in her was her shyness. Perhaps the stories and legends were just made up and exaggerated. Zer0 had to keep in mind that most stories came from humans, and humans were the most likely to make those stories up.

"Anyways, lets keep going!" Gaige broke into Zer0's thoughts. He followed noticing the slightly confused, but mostly pissed off glare directed at the assassin from no one other than Axton. Zer0 rolled his eyes. Axton could go screw himself or whatever, just as long as he didn't get in the way of Zer0 anymore.

"Oh look at that," Gaige remarked sarcastically, "there's a gate blocking the way."

"Oh wonderful." Maya sighed," how do you suppose we-"

"CANNON!" Kreig screamed making Maya, who was right beside the psycho flinch away from the loudness of his voice. Krieg ran and jumped on the cannon not hesitating to blast the gate away, and also Clap Trap. "Well I guess that solved it." Gaige said, "but now Clap Trap is gone."

"Oh whatever," Axton added, "we'll be fine. I mean we have maps and who better to read maps than a guy who was in the military..." Axton trailed off frowning and looking at his digital map looking very lost. Zer0 rolled his eyes at the soldier, and Maya and Gaige did too.

"I thought you were in the military," Gaige said mockingly, "shouldn't you know what you're doing?"

"...annnnnd I'm lost!" Axton tried to regain some composure with that last sentence but failed. Zer0 sighed and pulled out his own echo map. "Axton it's not hard, the map tells us where we are, use your brain for once." Axton's eyes darkened in anger while Gaige and Maya snickered behind the soldier. "Are you trying to say you're smarter than me?"

"Yes."

"Why you little-!"

"Okay, okay! Let's not kill each other until we are in Sanctuary." Maya cut in between the assassin and the soldier, who were both tensely, well in Axton's case aggressively facing each other.

Axton hesitantly backed off, and Zer0 smiled smugly. Too bad for Axton. he wouldn't be able to reveal who Zer0 was today. The assassin heard Axton muttering furiously, "oh one of these days, I'll show everyone what you really are." Zer0 chuckled and aimed a smiley emoticon at Axton who stomped away from the assassin.

The vault hunters walked in sudden stony silence following the map up along the path. There were a bunch of bandits, but they were really just pathetic anyways. A sudden rumbling filled the air and Zer0 could feel it in his chest. "Woah what's that?" Gaige asked trying to peer around the sides of the ice walls around them.

They emerged into a wide ice ice shelf where the rumbling was sourced. Maya looked upon the sight that greeted them with awe. "Woah...that's a huge ship..."

It was a huge ship. For a bunch of bandits to have made it, its architecture was very impressive. The sails were made out of many large metal plates that extended across the length of the ship. The whole ship sloped majestically to form a dragons head that belched the flame out making the ground shake. Zer0 noted that from far away, the ship appeared seamless and beautiful, but when he used to option to use built in binoculars with some special modifications in his visor to look up close, it was very crude and rough. It was still very impressive to be made by bandits, though Zer0 had seen much more impressive things in his career so far.  
Maya and Gaige stared at the ship in awe.

This suggested that they hadn't seen much before in their lives, they may never have even left their home planets or travelled at all before, It wasn't uncommon either. There were people all over galaxies that had never even set foot outside their own town or city and that was mostly because of being too poor, or way to attached to their homes since space travel every where was so common it was super cheap.

Salvador even seemed impressed. Axton was pretty indifferent appearing to the ship, big surprise there, as if he hadn't seen lots of way better places before. And then there was Krieg who was acting like he normally did.

Zer0's attention turned to a bunch of rakks dive bombing a midget psycho and a couple of marauders down by a small hut at the edge of he glacier. The assassin sighed wishing he had a sniper rifle to kill them with. Zer0's wish practically came true though when Salvador nudged Maya saying, "hey chica, see those bandits down there, why don't you take out that sniper rifle you got and kill them all with it?"

Maya look away hesitating looking a little embarrassed. "But I suck with sniper rifles, I just needed another gun, plus nobody else here wants one anyways."

"Come on Maya! You can do it!" Gaige cheered the siren on.

"I'll give you twenty bucks." Zer0 decided to pitch in for encouragement, what was he harm anyways?

"Twenty dollars?" Salvador laughed, "she needs fifty to just hold the gun!"

"Okay okay, I'll do it." Maya smiled embarrassed looking, "just don't distract me or laugh at me, cause I know I suck."

The siren pulled the gun out and held the scope up to her eye. Right away Zer0 had several criticisms come to his mind about her position, the way she held the gun, the way she was aiming, but he decided to honour her request to be quiet and keep his mouth shut. For what felt like forever, because the rakks that were attacking the bandits were dead already, Maya was positioning the gun. Just as she finally squeezed her finger on the trigger, Kreig screamed, "FIND THE MEAT BICYCLE FOR US!"

This made the vault hunters jump because they were waiting in anticipation for several minutes. But Maya jumped even more so and she jerked slightly as the bullet just left it's chamber. The bullet sliced in a blur towards the bandit camp and just as Maya growled in annoyance, for a couple of reasons, a high pitched scream sounded down below and a tiny figure fell on the ground red staining the snow. "EEEEEEEEEEE! MY KNEE!"

Followed by, "Holy Skag! It's the Crimson Raiders! Run for your lives, they're coming to kill us all!" One of the marauders went and started hiding by a crate while the psycho screamed in pain non stop, rolling all over the ground soaking it red.

"No it ain't you stupid coward!" The other Marauder grabbed his hiding companion and threw him away from the crate, "it's that group of vault hunters Handsome Jack wants dead!"

"Really?"

"Of course you dunce! Now go and-" the marauder stopped and turned towards the screaming midget raising his gun high. A dull thunk carrying across the glacier followed by, "shut your incessant screaming you good for nothing midget!" Came from the bandit now obviously in charge of the little encampment.

"Now go and kill the vault hunters up there, because they ain't gonna stop laughing at us and if Flynt finds out we let them mock us he'll impale our arms and legs on hot rods and turn us into living displays for his ship, and I don't want the position I worked so hard to get us down here to go to waste!"

Bullets were flying now up at the vault hunters who had been watching this going on with smiles and Salvador's and Krieg's booming laughs going on. Though for some reason, the bandits didn't move much farther from where they were. They were a completely clear shot, and none of the bullets they fired hit the vault hunters.

"Alright Maya, time to shut the other two up!" Gaige encouraged the siren. "Just do a little pull of the trigger, and boom, squish!"

Maya shook her head looking red faced with displeasure and embarrassment. "No, I didn't even kill that midget, the other bandit did it for me. besides, I don't think I should use this gun."

Gaige stepped back, "I don't want it."

Axton shook his head, "I'm good."

Zer0 stepped forward his hand out. Finally, a sniper rifle he could use! "Give the gun to me, and I will end those bandits," then Zer0, with a grin that showed as a smiley hologram on his helmet, couldn't resist adding just to piss Maya off, "because you couldn't."

Maya grew red in the face again, this time in anger and she hit Zer0 across the back with a sharp and also stinging, light whap from the butt of the gun.

"oof that hurt." It did, but Zer0 didn't mind, he just wanted to tease Maya to see her reaction.

"I hope it did. Now take the gun and kill those bandits." Maya's face all angry made Zer0 smile amused but nobody saw this time. Gaige giggled and Maya shot a glare at her too. Zer0 raised the sniper rifle up to his eye realizing he barely needed the scope to kill the bandits. he positioned the gun in less than a second then pulled trigger taking a half second and pulling the trigger again.

Bullets quit flying at the vault hunters and the two marauders slumped lifeless in the snow, their heads removed from their bodies and spread all over the snow. Silence, then "WOW! That was AWESOME!" Gaige jumped up and down like a sugar pumped kid. "Hahah! You were awesome buddy!" Salvador clapped zer0 on the shoulder. Maya looked away her face slightly red and a hint of a smile on it, "yeah, I "suppose" you were good."

"LETS KILL THE FLAME THAT BURNS ALL THE SOULS!" Krieg shouted. Zer0 supposed this was something to do with killing Flynt.

"If you mean Flynt, then lets destroy him!" Gaige cried raising her shot gun in the air and running down the slope having travelled a surprising distance, "For Death Trap!"

"Did you say Clap Trap?" Salvador shouted running after her.

"NO! I SAID DEATH TRAP! I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT CLAP TRAP!"

Krieg screamed something inaudible despite the volume of his voice then ran ahead, while Maya stood on the spot with her eyebrows raised then she took off saying, "Guys wait we might want to think of a plan!"

Axton and Zer0 were left standing there then. As the other vault hunters figures grew smaller towards the ship, Axton faced Zer0 eyes full of, not exactly anger or fear, but something else. There where no more traces of anger anymore for sure, this made Zer0 confused by Axton's sudden change, "she likes you."

Zer0 took an involuntary step back as the realization hit him, and the whole situation hit him like a brick to the head. "no, that's not possible, you're just lying." Zer0 tried feebly to lie, not to Axton but himself.

Axton raised his eyebrows, "yeah I'm sure I'm lying right now. Why do you think she looks at you like that? and why do you think you tease her so out of your own character? I'm not stupid."

"why are you telling me? what do you hope to accomplish, you hate me."

Axton chuckled in amusement irritating Zer0, "because I know what you think of her and what she thinks of you."

Zer0's stomach also involuntarily jolted at the mention of this, plus he thought he felt his face heating up a bit. he hated himself right now, sure he hated Axton, but the assassin hated himself the most, this woman coming near him, into his life, made him really question himself and his sanity. Axton asked the same question he'd been asking himself.

"My question is, who are you really?"


End file.
